In a room of the Tower of London in
August 1189, two people who were about to be married met for the first time.
This twist of fate or act of destiny would have a far-reaching effect on English
history.

The young lady was Isabel de Clare, sole heiress of Richard Strongbow
de Clare, Earl of Pembroke and Striguil, and Aoife, daughter of Dermot
MacMurrough, King of Leinster.

Aiofe

The man was William Marshal, the second son of
John the Marshal and Sibyl, sister of Patrick, Earl of Salisbury.

There are no
accounts of this first meeting nor of their marriage ceremony, but this was the
final step in the making of one of the greatest knights and magnates of medieval
English history.

John fitz Gilbert was the father of William
Marshal Earl of Pembroke. John was the son of Gilbert, the marshal of the
royal household of King Henry I. The office of the marshal was part of the
Curia, with a deputy in the Exchequer and one in the King's Bench, as well as
one in the Court of the Marshals of the King's household. The office was
subordinate to the office of constable of the royal household.. The office was
responsible for everything connected to the horses of the royal household, the
hawks and the hounds as well.

William Marshal and Isabel de Clare were
married in August 1189. He was about forty-three and she was seventeen years
old. They had ten children; five sons and five daughters, and all of the
children lived.

Richard fitz Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Pembroke and
Lord of Leinster, was the father of Isabel de Clare, wife of William
Marshal. Richard was the son of Gilbert fitz Gilbert de Clare, Earl of
Pembroke, and Isabel de Beaumont, sister to Waleran Count of Meulan and Robert
Earl of Leicester.

At the age of thirty-eight and still
unmarried due to a lack of royal favor, Richard was ready for the arrival and
proposal of Dermot MacMurchada Lord of Leinster in 1168/69.

Dermot offered
Strongbow lands in Ireland, his daughter Eve in marriage, and the lordship of
Leinster on Dermot's death. Dermot offered Strongbow a gamble, a chance, on
winning lands, a royal wife, wealth, and knightly fame.

Strongbow's father was Gilbert fitz
Gilbert de Clare, lord of Orbec and Bienfaite, lord of Striguil (Chepstow), and
earl of Pembroke. Gilbert was a younger son of Gilbert fitz Richard de Clare,
earl of Tonbridge and Clare and lord of Ceredigion, the Marcher lordship of
Cardigan.

Strongbow's mother was Isabel (Elizabeth) de Beaumont, sister to
Robert earl of Leicester and Waleran count of Meulan. Isabel had been the
youngest mistress of King Henry I, and their liaison resulted in a natural
daughter, Isabel (Elizabeth), born c.1129/30. When Isabel de Beaumont married
Gilbert in 1130, she took this daughter with her. Strongbow was born before the
end of 1130; thus he was raised with the natural half-sister of the Empress
Matilda.

According to the legend, a group of young
men had come to see the Abbey and decided to employ several laborers to dig in
the orchard that adjoins the Abbey to see if they could discover some
antiquities. They apparently discovered the remains of two human skeletons and
decided to celebrate their discovery by having an evening feast held within the
ruins of the Abbey (Beattie 108).

For Aoife [princess of Leinster and widow of "Strongbow"]
to be buried in Tintern Abbey, she must have died in Wales. Aoife was an Irish
princess; "Strongbow," is buried in the Church of the Holy Trinity
[Christ Church] in Dublin (Barnard 92; Diceto i 407). Common sense and the
customs of the times dictate that only by dying in Wales would Aoife have been
buried there.

The discovery of Aoife MacMurrough’s
[MacMurchada] burial place
raises more questions than it answers. When did she return to Wales from
Ireland? What was she doing in Wales? When did she die? Is this why her daughter
Isabel de Clare and Isabel’s two youngest sons are buried at Tintern?

William Marshal's tournament career reached its apex when he was
appointed as head of the mesnie household of the young king Henry. Tournaments
of Marshal's time were vastly different from the tournaments held in the late
thirteenth century, and the majority of them were held on the continent because
Henry II did not allow them to be held in England. The tournaments held on the
continent were the training grounds for young men entering into knighthood.
These young men could be noble heirs or second or later sons of nobles, barons,
and/or magnates. These tournaments were the arenas through which the young males
entered into the elite military order of the middle ages.

Catherine Armstrong has Master's degree in Professional Writing from Kennesaw
State University in Atlanta, Georgia . Her field is medieval English history.
Her specific field is William Marshal, his fiefs and "familiares". Her
concentration is on the lands and people bound to Marshal by blood and marriage,
by feudal tenure, and by "affinity".

Ms Armstrong's essays form a complementary 4-part series focusing on the life
and times of William Marshal and his father-in-law Richard fitz Gilbert de Clare
two of the most powerful and influential men of their time. Each essay is
accompanied by an extensive and valuable bibliography.

"In a country with relatively few great churches and abbeys, and even fewer unfortified manor houses, the Castles of Wales form the most imposing group of monuments left from the Middle Ages. In terms of grandeur they are second only to the dramatic landscape."
Adrian Pettifer ~ Welsh Castles

De
Excidio Britanniae, c.540
Sixth century diatribe written by the monk, Gildas, giving some
insight into darkage Britain and the situation that gave rise to the
legend of Arthur.

Riothamus
to the Rescue, 467 AD
Excerpt from Jordanes' sixth century "Gothic History"
telling of a vain attempt on the part of the King of the Britons and
12,000 men to help the Roman Emperor, Anthemius

The
Coming of St. Augustine
Account of the coming of Roman Christianity to the island of Britain
in 597, by the 8th century historian, the Venerable Bede.

Pope
Gregory's Letter to Bishop Mellitus
A letter of instructions to Bishop Mellitus, who was joining
Augustine's mission in England, on how to handle the jold religious
customs of the newly converted pagans.

The
Synod of Whitby
Bede's account of the council in 664, at which the Roman church
established its primacy over the Celtic church. At issue was the
method by which Easter should be dated.

Historia
Brittonum
Nennius' ninth century entertaining, but questionable, collection of
the facts, myths and fables covering the early history of Britain.
Special emphasis on Arthur.

Peace
of Wedmore
Ninth century agreement between the English and Danes, establishing
the Danelaw.

Asser's
Life of King Alfred
The earliest known biography of Alfred the Great, written by a
Welshman from St. David's, who served the king as Bishop of
Sherbourne.

Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle
Fascinating (and massive) 52-part account of history covering the
years 1 through 1154 AD from the point of view of the Anglo-Saxons.
This is the COMPLETE TEXT.

Annales
Cambriae, c. 970
The tenth century Annals of Wales containing two interesting
references to King Arthur, which have been taken by some to be proof
of his historicity.

Henry
II and Becket
A largely objective account of Henry II's struggles with his
recalcitrant Archbishop of Canterbury by William of Newburgh

"Martyrdom,"
The Death of Thomas Becket
An emotional account of the attack on Becket's life in Canterbury
Cathedral told by Edward Grim, a man who stood by him and nearly
lost his own life in the process

The
Charter of St. Patrick
A phony 13th century document, attributed to St. Patrick but
actually concocted by the monks of Glastonbury Abbey to prove their
primacy over the neighboring See of Bath and Wells.